Guide to myself

I’m a curious person, and that makes me very excited to work with you, learn about your perspective, and hear out your ideas.

I decided to go through the exercise of creating a “guide to myself” after reading High Growth Handbook. Thank for the recommendation Darío Javier Cravero 👏. Here it goes.

What are my preferred communication modes?

I prefer direct chat and one-2-ones over the group calls, or group meetings, to discuss problems, ideas on an early stage, and critical feedback. Please don’t take it as lack of transparency, manipulation, or politics. Group chats and calls often turn into massive threads that put pressure on all team members to read and respond. They also put people in a defensive position. It usually could be avoided by a short direct call. Feel free to Direct Message me on Slack or schedule a Hangout call in my calendar.

I’m attending dailies, so if there is an update you want to bring to me and the team’s attention, I think that’s the most appropriate time (as far as the update is not too long).

Try to avoid emails. I use a 48 hours response rule on my email.

I like FYI emails and messages on something you noticed, a compelling use case, tech news, or cool blog post (to me FYI means “no response required”). It helps me stay up to date with what’s going on outside of my design space. I will do the same for you.

I’m a big fan of joined documents in Google Docs and Spreadsheets to keep track of new ideas and initiatives.

I’m not a fan of extensive documentation. I’m a firm believer solutions we build should be easy to understand for people who make and consume it.

What do I want to be involved in?

• Design, on every level.
• Business, on planning, execution, and vision.
• Development, I like to understand how things work on a high level.
• HR and interpersonal matters, I like to help people bring their best forward.
• Innovation, I’m progressive thinking professional. I want to expand my skills and push the boundaries. I like to ask hard questions and challenge the impossible or the status quo.

When do I want to hear from you?

I want to hear from you anytime when you have a question regarding design, front-end, and execution plans.

Feel free to challenge me on any subject, and I expect from you to prepare your arguments.

You can feel confident when bringing personal feedback to me and pointing out my shortcomings. I will not hold a grudge or start a personal vendetta against you. Just make sure you do it in a way that you would like to receive similar feedback from me, and that the time of your feedback is right. If you are not sure, reach out over Direct Message to double check with me.

Reach out to me especially when you don’t understand my decisions or opinions.

I’m here to help you achieve your goals and make sure you are growing in your role. Speak to me about any issues that prevent you from succeeding. I will do my best to help you find the right approach or solution.

What makes me impatient?

• Lack of respect on a personal or professional level.
• When I ask you a question and don’t hear from you, which will most likely, make me repeat myself.
• Passive attitude towards making things move forward.

Don’t surprise me with…

• Uneducated and uninformed guesses. I prefer to make decisions based on facts and data. Better yet, data confirmed by the experimentation.
• Continuous negative attitude. It’s important for me to be part of a positive environment and to drive things forward.

What’s my favourite way to work on a problem?

I like to meet and discuss before proposing solutions. I’m open to white-boarding ideas and drafting wireframes. I tend to look for many options and listen to all sides before settling down on a solution.

I will often get very hands-on with the implementation of the selected ideas. That means I will create the layouts or code the interface. Please don’t take it as lack of trust in you, or micro-management effort. I like my work.

I assume I’m wrong most of the times. That’s why I believe in testing and continuous improvement. I will always choose tools and processes that bring me close to instant feedback over perfectionism.

I embrace creative constraints, as I believe they help me focus on solving the problem. Without constraints, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with too many choices. I apply creative restrictions in design and also in business, mostly to define the scope of deliverables.

On the decision making process…

I will embrace your thoughts when you convince me about their value, or when I won’t be able to convince you otherwise. Please help me anticipate significant work efforts. Let’s keep in mind that we are in a startup mode and the resources constrain us.

I will ask for your opinion and sometimes do the opposite than what you suggest. Please don’t take it the wrong way. I will take risks when necessary, even if the path to the solution is uncertain or ill-advised.

I will intuitively handle some decisions, especially when I don’t have much facts or data. I will not jump into conclusions without hearing your argument. I’m ok with a good fight that leads to a positive outcome.

I try to think strategically to figure out where things will end up. It’s essential for you to correct my course when you feel necessary. I’m always thinking about what do we need to solve, why and when, what data and resources we need. I expect you to do the same from your perspective to maintain our alignment.

I don’t believe in expertise or experts. I believe in cross-functional professionals who can help others deliver by understanding the context of challenges and can contribute when needed.

I change my mind when I learn something new, or when I’m proved of being wrong.

What’s my view on design?

Great design is easy to change.

What’s my view on development?

I prefer a declarative way of development, which to me focuses on what I want to happen over an imperative way, which focuses on how I what things to happen. The declarative way is easier to understand, optimise, and scale.

What’s my view on business?

Design and development are both functions of supporting and growing the business. Users and their needs matter more to me than a succinct code or minimalistic layout.

I also believe in automation as a function of the business. It helps speed up the iteration process, makes design and code more consistent, and helps focus on the scalability rather than maintenance.

Finally

I like to have a good time and fun with the people I work. I also prefer to respect personal boundaries, and I often chose to shut up rather than cross them inappropriately, but if you noticed that I’ve said something unsuitable, please flag it with me. I will listen and adjust. We are all in this together, and the only way for me to be happy is for you to be satisfied first.

You are welcome to add to this document and suggest changes or make one for yourself. I’m interested in any tools and ways to help us understand each other better and become more productive.